Chinese Zodiac Sign Table

中國年號	西曆公元	六十甲子	生肖	年齡
光緒二十九年	1907	丁未	羊	100歲
光緒三十年	1908	戊申	猴	99歲
光緒三十一年	1909	己酉	雞	98歲
光緒二十八年	1910	庚戌	狗	97歲
光緒二十九年	1911	辛亥	豬	96歲
民國元年	1912	壬子	鼠	95歲
民國０二年	1913	癸丑	牛	94歲
民國０三年	1914	甲寅	虎	93歲
民國０四年	1915	乙卯	兔	92歲
民國０五年	1916	丙辰	龍	91歲
民國０六年	1917	丁巳	蛇	90歲
民國０七年	1918	戊午	馬	89歲
民國０八年	1919	己未	羊	88歲
民國０九年	1920	庚申	猴	87歲
民國一十年	1921	辛酉	雞	86歲
民國一十一年	1922	壬戌	狗	85歲
民國一十二年	1923	癸亥	豬	84歲
民國一十三年	1924	甲子	鼠	83歲
民國一十四年	1925	乙丑	牛	82歲
民國一十五年	1926	丙寅	虎	81歲
民國一十六年	1927	丁卯	兔	80歲
民國一十七年	1928	戊辰	龍	79歲
民國一十八年	1929	己巳	蛇	78歲
民國一十九年	1930	庚午	馬	77歲
民國二十年	1931	辛未	羊	76歲
民國二十一年	1932	壬申	猴	75歲
民國二十二年	1933	癸酉	雞	74歲
民國二十三年	1934	甲戌	狗	73歲
民國二十四年	1935	乙亥	豬	72歲
民國二十五年	1936	丙子	鼠	71歲
民國二十六年	1937	丁丑	牛	70歲
民國二十七年	1938	戊寅	虎	69歲
民國二十八年	1939	己卯	兔	68歲
民國二十九年	1940	庚辰	龍	67歲
民國三十年	1941	辛巳	蛇	66歲
民國三十一年	1942	壬午	馬	65歲
民國三十二年	1943	癸未	羊	64歲
民國三十三年	1944	甲申	猴	63歲
民國三十四年	1945	乙酉	雞	62歲
民國三十五年	1946	丙戌	狗	61歲
民國三十六年	1947	丁亥	豬	60歲
民國三十七年	1948	戊子	鼠	59歲
民國三十八年	1949	己丑	牛	58歲
民國三十九年	1950	庚寅	虎	57歲
民國四十年	1951	辛卯	兔	56歲
民國四十一年	1952	壬辰	龍	55歲
民國四十二年	1953	癸巳	蛇	54歲
民國四十三年	1954	甲午	馬	53歲
民國四十四年	1955	乙未	羊	52歲
民國四十五年	1956	丙申	猴	51歲
民國四十六年	1957	丁酉	雞	50歲
民國四十七年	1958	戊戌	狗	49歲
民國四十八年	1959	己亥	豬	48歲
民國四十九年	1960	庚子	鼠	47歲
民國五十年	1961	辛丑	牛	46歲
民國五十一年	1962	壬寅	虎	45歲
民國五十二年	1963	癸卯	兔	44歲
民國五十三年	1964	甲辰	龍	43歲
民國五十四年	1965	乙巳	蛇	42歲
民國五十五年	1966	丙午	馬	41歲
民國五十六年	1967	丁未	羊	40歲
民國五十七年	1968	戊申	猴	39歲
民國五十八年	1969	己酉	雞	38歲
民國五十九年	1970	庚戌	狗	37歲
民國六十年	1971	辛亥	豬	36歲
民國六十一年	1972	壬子	鼠	35歲
民國六十二年	1973	癸丑	牛	34歲
民國六十三年	1974	甲寅	虎	33歲
民國六十四年	1975	乙卯	兔	32歲
民國六十五年	1976	丙辰	龍	31歲
民國六十六年	1977	丁巳	蛇	30歲
民國六十七年	1978	戊午	馬	29歲
民國六十八年	1979	己未	羊	28歲
民國六十九年	1980	庚申	猴	27歲
民國七十年	1981	辛酉	雞	26歲
民國七十一年	1982	壬戌	狗	25歲
民國七十二年	1983	癸亥	豬	24歲
民國七十三年	1984	甲子	鼠	23歲
民國七十四年	1985	乙丑	牛	22歲
民國七十五年	1986	丙寅	虎	21歲
民國七十六年	1987	丁卯	兔	20歲
民國七十七年	1988	戊辰	龍	19歲
民國七十八年	1989	己巳	蛇	18歲
民國七十九年	1990	庚午	馬	17歲
民國八十年	1991	辛未	羊	16歲
民國八十一年	1992	壬申	猴	15歲
民國八十二年	1993	癸酉	雞	14歲
民國八十三年	1994	甲戌	狗	13歲
民國八十四年	1995	乙亥	豬	12歲
民國八十五年	1996	丙子	鼠	11歲
民國八十六年	1997	丁丑	牛	10歲
民國八十七年	1998	戊寅	虎	9歲
民國八十八年	1999	己卯	兔	8歲
民國八十九年	2000	庚辰	龍	7歲
民國九十年	2001	辛巳	蛇	6歲
民國九十一年	2002	壬午	馬	5歲
民國九十二年	2003	癸未	羊	4歲
民國九十三年	2004	甲申	猴	3歲
民國九十四年	2005	乙酉	雞	2歲
民國九十五年	2006	丙戌	狗	1歲

Chinese Pinyin - Change of Tone

Change of tone

The tone of a word sometimes changes when used in a sentence depending on the tone of the word that preceds or comes after it.

Rule 1:

If a 3rd tone is followed by a 3rd tone, the first 3rd tone becomes second tone.

３　３　－＞　２　３

Example:

The word for "hello" in Mandarin is: nǐhǎo which literally means "You good."
When these two words are pronounced seperately, they are both pronounced using the third tone. When they are used together to form the word "hello" ni takes the second tone and hao remains in third tone.

Note that the word nǐhǎo is still written with two third tones, but it is said with the the nǐ in second tone.

Rule 2: 

If a 3rd tone is followed by any tone other than the 3rd tone (covered by rule 1) the 3rd tone changes to a "half 3rd tone." A "half 3rd tone" is one that falls, but does not rise.

Example: ni mamma

Rule 3: 

The word "bu" is 4th tone, but when it is followed by another 4th tone, it becomes 2nd tone.
Example : bu yao 不　要 　(don't want means NO)

4 　4　　 --> 　　2　　 4 

不　要

Rule 4: 

Rules concerning the word "yi."

The word "yi" is 1st tone when used as part of a number
(yi, er, san, ... shiyi). 　一　二　三．．．

The word "yi" is 4th tone when preceeding 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tones.
(yi ge ren)　one person　一個人　

The word "yi" is 2nd tone when proceeding a 4th tone.　
(den yi xia 3 2 4 )　等一下  wait a moment

Three Months Personal Chinese Tutoral Class

Three Months Personal Chinese Tutoral Class

Three months personal Chinese tutoral class for 18,000 dollars
You can have a class anytime in my empty schedule box
if you want to learn Chinese from Mon. to Fri.
Each class one hour


Note : I'll leave my morning and early afternoon empty for the students who choose 
            this package.


Making a Class Appointment

Check Katrina's class schedule   --> 

Find empty boxes in my schedule -->

Make an appointment for your class -->

Come to class on time


For more detail, please contact me at the info below

Gmail :  katrinali0816@gmail.com

The Introduction of Chinese Pinyin - Initials

Initials


A Chinese character has only one syllable, which consists of two parts: an initial (consonant) and a final (vowel). The consonants always appear initially in a syllable. There are 21 initials for the standard Chinese pronunciation and they fall into six groups as follows:

b	p	m	f
d	t	n	l
g	k	h
j	q	x
z	c	s
zh	ch	sh	r

Pronunciation Hint:

The initials of 'm', 'f', 'n', 'l', 'h', 's', and 'sh' are pronounced the same as their corresponding ones in English.

'b' is analogous to the sound of 'p' in the English word 'spin'. (unaspirated)

'd' is analogous to the sound of 't' in the English word 'straight'.(unaspirated)

'j' is analogous to the sound of 'g' in the English word 'genius'. (unaspirated)

'z' is analogous to the sound of 'ds' in the English word 'beds'.

'zh' is analogous to the sound of 'j' in the English word 'job'.

'g' is analogous to the unaspirated sound 'g' in the English word 'get'.

'x' is analogous to the sound of 'sh' in the English word 'sheep', but with the lip corners tightened up backwards.

'r' is analogous to the sound of 'dge' in the English word 'lodge'.

Please pay attention to the six aspirated 'p', 't', 'k', 'q', 'q', 'c', and 'ch' sounds.

Attentions must be paid to the differences between unaspirated sounds and aspirated sounds.

b/p d/t g/k j/q z/c zh/ch

The Introduction of Chinese Pinyin

Overview
  

Pinyin is a way to represent Chinese characters and express the sounds in the Chinese language using the alphabet. 

There are other systems to express Mandarin, but Pinyin is the most accepted and widely used. Once you learn Pinyin you will know how to pronounce any word in Mandarin using a Chinese dictionary. Pinyin is also the most common way to input Chinese characters into a computer. Although Pinyin and English both use the Roman alphabet, many letters are not expressed with the same sounds that English uses.

Initals and Finals

Words expressed in pinyin use a set of 21 sounds representing the beginning of the word called initials, and a set of 37 sounds representing the end of the word called finals. These combine to form about 420 different sounds.

Example:

The word for “Flower” expressed in pinyin is: huā

In this word, the letter “h” is the initial and “uā” is the final.

Words are often combined to form compound words

The word for “China” expressed in pinyin is: zhōngguó

zhōng means middle.
Initial: “zh”
Final: “ōng”

guó means country.
Initial: “g”
Final: “uó”

Tones

Words in Mandarin that have the same pronunciation can have different meanings depending on how the word is said. The "tone" of a word describes how the the pitch of the speaker's voice changes as the word is said. There are four "tones" in Mandarin. 

The tones are represented in pinyin by marks above the words.

Chinese Pinyin - Tones

This video gives the introduction of the language Chinese and also the tones of the language.


Tones

In Mandarin, words that have the same pronunciation can have different meanings depending on how the word is said. The "tone" of a word describes how the pitch changes as the word is said. There are four "tones" in Mandarin. The tones are represented in pinyin by marks above the words and are read from left to right. The absence of a tone also has meaning.
For example, the word "ma" can have a number of different meanings depending on how it is said.

Word with tone	Description of tone	Description of tone	Name of tone
mā	Mother	The straight line over the word indicates that the word should be said with a flat and unchanging high tone.	1st tone
má	To bother	The mark going up above the word indicates the word should be said in a rising tone.	2nd tone
mǎ	Horse	The down and then up mark above the word indicates that the word should be said with a falling and then rising tone.	3rd tone
mà	To scold	The down mark above the word indicates that the word should be said with a falling tone.	4th tone
ma	Grammatical marker used in a question.	When a word has no tone or mark above the word it is said to be neutral and is pronounced in an abbreviated manner with no emphasis.	Neutral

Using tones 1, 3, 4, and 5 in order we can form the sentence: mā mà mǎ ma?
This sentence asks the question: Did mother scold the horse?
The following diagram shows how the tones are pronounced in relation to each other.

Class Schedule

Here is the schedule for all my classes (Chinese&English)
If you wish to learn Chinese with me and would like to know my work schedule.
Please check the table below
As a part-time teacher, my schedule changes every month, so I'll keep posted my latest work schedule on this blog.  :) 

The yellow boxes show my available time to have classes.

	Mon.	Tue.	Wed.	Thur.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.
早 上				9	10	9:30-12:30
		12:00-1:00
	5:30-7:00	4:20-6:20	4:10-5:40	4:20- 6：20	2:30- 4:00	1:30-3:40	1:30-3:40
	7:30-9:30	7:00-8:00		7-8		8:20-9:50
		8;00-9;00 Ian	7:30-9:30		7:30-9:00

Learn Chinese with Yangyang - Pinyin Lesson Introduction of Pinyin and M...

Youtube is a very good source for learning all languages.
Here is a very interesting video about pinyin lesson with a beautiful teacher.  :)

Recommended Material

Live Interactive Chinese  Live互動華語

 This is the material which is introduced by one of my friends who is also a certified Mandarin teacher.  The reason that I recommend this magazine is because this material can highly raise a learner's interest not only from its cover but also the context inside. For now, I don't have this magazine, but I will be using this magazine as one of my materials in the near future.

Live Interactive Chinese magazine + CD-ROM employs innovative multimedia techniques to teach Mandarin in a comprehensive way. Each issue includes news, an illustrated dictionary, background to Chinese characters and Asian attractions. To connect to Chinese popular culture, Live Interactive Chinese also provides movies and music videos. Our products have a variety of audiovisual content designed to help beginners learn Chinese step-by-step, from basic everyday Chinese to advanced business Chinese.

 

Materials

Here are the textbooks that I used as my class materials  :) 

1. Far East Everyday Chinese  遠東生活華語

This is the book which is highly used in almost all my classes.

The textbook, with its 12 chapters, provides the learners with texts in modern standard  Chinese. Each chapters is equipped with a variety of exercises in phonetics, grammar, contextual meaning and usage to help the learners improve their communicative skills. However, as a native speaker of Chinese, it is still not a perfect ideal material for learning chinese, which is why I now use this material as a guideline then do some adjustments on it, make my own handout for my students.

2. Illustracted Chinese-English Dictionary　中文圖解辭典

This book contains most of the practical terms used in daily life. There are many categories, all with their own picture themes, making this an ideal learning tool that can be used long-term.
It also uses simplified Chinese characters, and each phrase has pinyin and the English definition next to it. So in my class, I usually offer traditional Chinese characters on the side for my students.

 3. Mandarin Chinese

 The book contains twenty lessons with review exercises in every lesson and it also has instruction integrates conversational skills with proficiency in grammar.
The reason that I use this as my material is because it has shorter and easier conversation for each lesson, which is easier than Far East Everyday Chinese. But it is a simplified-Chinese materia and the expression in the converstaions are too MAINLAND CHINA which makes me to type my own traditional Chinese handout for students.  :P

4.  Easy Way to Learn Chinese Characters  漢字速成課本

 This book is intended for beginners of Chinese language learning, who are willing to take in some knowledge about Chinese and interested in learning the language.
In this book, you will learn how to the strokes, stroke order, components and structures of Chinese characters. For the further lessons, you will be learning the meaning of radicals and some other phonetic radicals. But the material only shows the simplified Chinese characters.

Location & Environment

Here is where I have all my private classes (Mandarin & English)

It's a little office which is fully equiped as a classroom for all my little group classes.   :P

The office is located at this link below.


http://maps.google.com.tw/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=zh-tw&geocode=&q=%E6%96%B0%E7%AB%B9%E5%B8%82%E6%B0%91%E7%94%9F%E8%B7%AF10%E5%B7%B717%E5%BC%843%E8%99%9F+2%E6%A8%93&sll=23.63446,120.970459&sspn=2.646754,4.603271&brcurrent=3,0x34683608af7574fd:0x9643333e378eabc8,0,0x34684a77b55ae7f7:0x5e4ce862e2a11ffb&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=300%E6%96%B0%E7%AB%B9%E5%B8%82%E6%9D%B1%E5%8D%80%E6%B0%91%E7%94%9F%E8%B7%AF10%E5%B7%B717%E5%BC%843%E8%99%9F&z=15

My Biography - Katrina Lee

Katrina Lee

I'm a Chinese and English teacher who was born and raised in Hsinchu, Taiwan.  I have 7 years of teaching experience in English, as well as 1 year of teaching experience in Mandarin, having started teaching right after getting my Mandarin teaching certificate.  I have students from America, Canada, Korea, and South Africa and I am still expecting to meet more students from all over the world!!!  :)

I graduated from Nan Ya Institute of Science and Technology, majoring in Applied Foreign Languages.  I can speak four languages- Chinese, English, Hakka, and Taiwanese.


As a bilingual speaker of Chinese and English and one who is also teaching both languages, I find people always either automatically rely on their mother tongue automatically or focus on GRAMMAR too much, when it comes to learning a foreign language.
Both problems can seem helpful when starting to learn a new language but they can also be seen as a big obstacle in learning a foreign language.

English is a language I've been learning for a long time, I devoted very much time and effort, when I was a student.
Chinese, Hakka, and Taiwanese are all my native languages that I acquired natually.

In my Mandarin classes, I give words and phrases, to students, that are useful in their lives.
I also give sentence patterns and words that can be paraphrasesed in a structure.
I also believe that motivation is a huge factor in learning a language, and my job is to raise students interest and give them the words and phrases that can come in handy when it comes to  their daily lives.

I now have an English learning website for all my Taiwanese students, and they all LOVE my blog (http://polyglot-katrina.blogspot.com),  Now, it is time for the students from foreign lands who are expecting a fun-loving adventure in the world of Mandarin!!!

Enjoy!!!   :)

An Introduction of SMART Mandarin

To All Readers:

My name is Katrina Lee, I'm the founder of this blog.

In this web space, you will see information on materials, courses, and everything to do with learning Mandarin in Taiwan with ME!

As a foreigner in Taiwan who wishes to learn some survival Chinese, you may turn to some language exchange websites. Unfortunately those sites don’t show you HOW to learn Chinese! 

At SMART Mandarin, I'll be sharing HOW to learn Chinese from my point of view as a Mandarin & English teacher. 

This space is not only for sharing my experience as a language teacher, but also a space for people to share their Chinese learning experiences.

I am also available as a private or corporate teacher. If you need my services then you can contact me via the contact details below :)

Skype :  katrinali0816@gmail.com
MSN : katrinali0816@hotmail.com
Mobile : 0988 909 812